Cory Bernardi calls for debate on abortion

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has once again distanced himself from Liberal senator Cory Bernardi after the backbencher called for a new debate on abortion, railed against ''non-traditional'' families and called for more flexible industrial relations laws.

Senator Bernardi, a former parliamentary secretary to Mr Abbott, made the controversial comments in his new book, The Conservative Revolution, and stood by them in an interview on the ABC on Monday.

In his book, Senator Bernardi accuses some women of using abortion as ''an abhorrent form of birth control'' and brands those who advocate for the availability of abortion as ''pro-death''.

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

He writes that the ''death industry'' carries out 80,000 to 100,000 abortions each year in Australia, a figure he calls ''horrendous and unacceptable''.

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However, these figures are not backed up by an authoritative or complete count of the number of abortions performed in Australia each year, because terminations paid for under Medicare are recorded under the same code as a variety of other operations, and Medicare data does not include those performed in public hospitals.

The South Australian senator also calls for the traditional family model to be restored to ''prime position'' over other family arrangements such as step families, same-sex and single families.

''Given the increasing number of non-traditional families, there is a temptation to equate all family structures as being equal or relative,'' he writes. ''Why then the levels of criminality among boys and promiscuity among girls who are brought up in single-parent families, more often than not headed by a single mother?''

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said, as a stepfather, he was offended by Senator Bernardi's suggestion that families such as his were ''somehow inferior''.

''Cory Bernardi's comments on what he regards as non-traditional families are offensive,'' Mr Shorten said. ''There are hundreds of thousands of children who thrive in loving step-families, blended families or in families with a single parent. On what basis is Senator Bernardi suggesting these children are more likely to be criminal or is it just his own out-of-date prejudices?''

Senator Bernardi also called for more flexible workplace laws, saying parts of John Howard's Work Choices laws should be revisited. ''Surely an employee should be free to negotiate an acceptable workplace agreement directly with their employer … free from government or union interference,'' he writes.

The comments are likely to prove an unwelcome distraction for Mr Abbott, who has sought to neutralise the issues of industrial relations and abortion.

During the 2010 and 2013 election campaigns Mr Abbott insisted Work Choices was ''dead, buried and cremated''.

And in 2013, Mr Abbott pledged the Coalition had no plans to change abortion laws after the then prime minister Julia Gillard gave a speech warning ''men in blue ties'' would make abortion rights their ''plaything'' if the Coalition won power. Mr Abbott's spokeswoman issued a brief statement on Monday. ''Senator Bernardi is a backbencher and his views do not represent the position of the government.''